David James Duncan is a novelist and essayist whose writing deals with environmental issues, spirituality, and fly-fishing. His books The River Why(1983) and The Brothers K (1992) received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers award, and The Brothers K was a New York Times Notable Book and won a Best Books Award from the American Library Association. His recent books are God Laughs and Plays: Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right and My Story as Told by Water.